France - Ireland Should be a tight one. Ireland don't allow many goals and they were unbeaten against Italy. Bosnia - Portugal This one depends on which version of Portugal turns up. Both have strong attacking players but are dodgy at the back. Could be a very exciting fixture. Ukraine - Greece Strongest non-seed against weakest seed IMO. Ukraine were strong in England and Croatia's group while Greece have not looked great. Slovenia - Russia Russia had a good qualifying campaign and ran Germany close. Slovenia's group was a close one with no team overly dominant.
Although one has to wonder about England's motive to win that match in Kyiv. Ukraine are a bit overrated ATM thanks to the easiest draw in World Cup history (2006) and the timing of that England match. These teams did play twice in qualifying back in 2004, 2005. Drew 1-1 in Ukraine, and Ukraine won 1-nil in Greece. The latter had huge implications in that WC qualifying group as Ukraine clinched first-place and the win also meant they could take-it-easy in their match against Turkey (and they did) thus screwing Greece twice.
Greece is a difficult team to fathom. I wouldn't discount them at all. There is an excellent team chemistry among its players. Charisteas, Samaras, Gekas, Karagounis, Katsouranis, etc. have, at times, a nearly telepathic understanding. I'd say Greece is a typical example of where the whole is much greater than the sum of its parts.
Ukraine played well against England at home too. It was by far our most difficult game in this campaign, prior to qualification. As mentioned on the "seeding" thread, for various reasons I think this is a fairly tight pool of teams.
Yes, I believe the prolific Tottenham and England goalscorer, Peter "Minnowsquasher" Crouch was involved.
Charisteas...one of the weakest players around in Europe. Scored some headers in their Euro 2004 matches, and the hype was born.
Yes, he was over-hyped at some point, but a player that keeps scoring for his NT is to be appreciated. He's scored 4 goals and is the second top scorer for Greece in the qualifiers. And he's far behind Gekas in part because he missed half of the qualifiers due to injury.
your dream draw? people usually dream of expensive cars, lotto winnings and trophy wives. dreaming about football playoff draws is a bit odd lol
i would like to see FRANCE,RUSSIA,BOSNIA,GREECE advance to world cup 2010 and this is my opinion why? FRANCE - IRELAND : IRELAND is the only team going to play-off without lost and they almost beat ITALY,but FRANCE is back just look at their clubs in CL,and FRENCH players got more experienced though. RUSSIA - SLOVENIA : SLOVENIA could be the weakest team of 8 so i do not think SLOVENIA can beat RUSSIA. PORTUGAL - BOSNIA : on paper PORTUGAL should beat BOSNIA because they got experienced and rank higher but BOSNIA second behind SPAIN so PORTUGAL must at their best to beat BOSNIA and remember BOSNIA got some good players from GERMAN clubs,ENGLISH clubs and ITALIAN clubs and they are tough at home. GREECE - UKRAINE : when you edge out CROATS to be second in group that is very impressived and i think GREECE is a good match up for UKRAINIAN but still i think GREECE will advance and do not forget they were EURO champions 2004 and i wanna see GREECE at world cup,last world cup UKRAINE dissappointed me after they lost to ITALY 3-0 so they just a ordinary and got no chance to go deep next year.
can i just ask you, WHY? Greece must have played the most boring football on the planet at Euro 2008. It was painful. I think I would prefer to have my scrotum removed from around my testicles, and have it engineered into an extremely pointy object that would get repeatedly stuck into my eye sockets over seeing Greece at the World Cup. great country though, love it lol yeah, what a bunch of useless hacks those Ukrainians are. you know, losing to Italy, disappointing it's fans worldwide. i think they're right up with Germany and France there in terms of disappointing it's fans when it comes to losing to Italy. i don't know man, in my German world, if you can't beat Italy, it's pigfarm time! useless Ukrainian swine.
do you know why i wanna see GREECE at world cup?because i want to see new team that's all,yeah i hate it after GERMANY lost to ITALY,if they just hold it for a few minutes then come to penalty then we might in final and could win a world cup if we face FRANCE though,but i like this world cup coming up,all 32 team more balance and so interesting.i would like to see GREECE,BOSNIA,RUSSIA AND FRANCE at world cup,i am doubt about IRELAND chance because they coming to play-off with defeat attitute but FRANCE must be at their best to beat IRELAND.
to each their own, i guess. i've seen enough of Greece at Euros. ZZZZZzzzzzzzz! i'm cheering for Ukraine, even those hacks hate us so much lol. nothing against Greece though - great country, great people lol
Am I the only one thinking that the UEFA qualifying playoffs should be one game at a neutral ground? first-legs = ZZzzzzz....
Playoffs are too much of a crapshoot already, reducing them to one game just makes that worse. It's a qualifying process - I'd rather they make it as fair as possible, rather than try and make it exciting. I'd rather have a boring playoff and save the exciting matches for the final tournament.
Maybe, but then again these playoffs are essentially just a tiebreaker. If its part of the tournament proper (like CL knockout rounds) I can see the need for 2 legs, but tiebreakers usually call for dramatic and quick resolutions. Have the international friendlies on Saturday, and on Sunday schedule something like the following: Russia v Slovenia 14h00 CET (Vienna) Ireland v France 16h00 CET (White Hart Lane, London) Ukraine v Greece 19h00 CET (Zagreb, Croatia) Portugal v Bosnia 21h00 CET (Monte Carlo) Much of Europe would be watching, IMO. As it is, I doubt many people watched these first-legs unless their country was involved.
i think this will be neutral places amsterdam instead of vienna, oslo or Copenhagen instead of London, Rome instead od Monte Carlo, and somewhere in France instead of Zagreb
Ahm, he was trying to find a middle ground. Why would Ukraine and Greece play in France? It's a senseless idea anyway. I couldn't care less if Portugal is going to be watched by more if I can't see them live...
Having a single game would force teams to be even cautious. Alot of the games would go down to penalties. When so much is at stake a two leg tie is needed.
Travelling is always a big part of following your NT anyway though if you want to see them live. Travelling half the distance on the weekend seems more convenient than travelling to Lisboa on the weekend and then the full-distance to Sarajevo in midweek.